Republican North Carolina Rep. Chuck Edwards sent a letter to colleagues Thursday asking them not to censure him after an investigation concluded he engaged in inappropriate behavior.
The House Ethics Committee found on Aug. 3 that Edwards engaged in unprofessional and inappropriate behavior with two former female staffers and recommended that the House censure him. Edwards’ staff delivered “Dear Colleagues” letters to congressional offices arguing that the committee ignored key context when considering its findings, NOTUS first reported.
“I am asking you to distinguish between the conduct that someone, examining isolated excerpts after the fact, might consider unconventional and conduct that actually establishes sexual harassment,” Edwards wrote in the letter. “That distinction is critical because of what the Committee did not find.”
Edwards argued there is no House rule preventing members and their staff from being friends, spending social time together or “genuinely and deeply caring about people with whom he has worked closely for years.” The committee’s report detailed how Edwards allegedly gave two female staffers “lavish and recurring gifts,” including more than $1,000 worth of jewelry, vacations, designer handbags and one-on-one dinners.
One of the staffers allegedly told a friend she felt “scared low-key” because she felt Edwards no longer viewed her as just a friend. The congressman arranged a surprise birthday performance for her and said it was “from a special someone.”
The pattern of conduct gave “the appearance of a sexual or romantic advance,” the report said.
Edwards said in the letter that he treated these staffers similarly to the rest of his staff. He accused the committee of failing to take into account that he had longtime friendships with these staffers long before he was in Congress.
“Before accepting the Committee’s conclusion, I respectfully ask you to examine the evidence, the omissions, the disputed facts and, above all, the enormous distance between what the Committee actually found and the label it ultimately imposed,” Edwards wrote. “Possibility is not proof. Inference is not proof. And selective context is not totality. A finding this serious should rest on evidence equally serious. This one does not.”
The congressman said the committee found he did not engage in sexual activity or violate any sexual harassment law, according to the letter.
Edwards announced on Aug. 5 that he would not seek reelection after the committee released the report.
Republican Ohio Rep. Max Miller took steps to launch an Ethics Committee investigation into himself after his ex-wife, Emily Moreno, accused him of domestic violence during his reelection campaign. The committee opened the investigation on Aug. 4.
(DCNF)